The upcoming festival also disclosed a fascinating list for their ‘In Conversation With...’ the beloved series which gives audiences a chance to meet some of the biggest names in cinema from around the world.

Ten leading figures from the world of cinema from five continents are expected in Marrakech this year to take part in the ‘In Conversation With...’ program. In front of Festival audiences, actors, directors, screenwriters, and producers are invited to share their vision and professional practice, all mixed in with tasty anecdotes and impromtu conversations.

The conversations are sure to be rich and exciting, with this year's guests including international stars, world beloved filmmakers and a Moroccan icon.

They include chats with this year’s Étoile d’Or recipients, the magnetic Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and the talented Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi. Plus some public sit downs with charismatic Australian actor and director Simon Baker; free-spirited and audacious French director Bertrand Bonello; Willem Dafoe, the US actor with a legendary filmography; influential Indian filmmaker and producer Anurag Kashyap; singular Japanese director Naomi Kawase; intense Danish-American actor and director Viggo Mortensen; chameleonic Scottish actor Tilda Swinton; and multi-award-winning, widely respected Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Actor and director Simon Baker is best known to audiences around the world for his role as Patrick Jane in TV’s The Mentalist. His film credits include some wonderful works, such as Curtis Hanson’s Academy Award-winning L.A. Confidential (1997), David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011).

Bertrand Bonello’s first feature film, Something Organic (1998), was presented at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section. The Pornographer (2001) was presented in La Semaine de la Critique at the Festival de Cannes, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. His next several films were also screened in Cannes.

Having made more than one hundred films over the course of his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is respected throughout the world for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. He has received four Academy Award nominations: three for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, in Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), but also E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire (2000), and Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (2017), and one for Best Leading Actor, playing Vincent Van Gogh for Julian Schnabel in At Eternity’s Gate (2018).

Anurag Kashyap is an Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. For his contribution to cinema, the Government of France made him a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2013. Some of his titles include Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Ugly (2013), Psycho Raman (2016), Dev.D (2009), and Black Friday (2007).

Naomi Kawase continues to make films based in Nara City, the town where she was born and raised. Her works, made through a consistent reality, go beyond the boundaries of documentary and fiction, and have received many awards from film festivals around the world, including two prizes from the Festival de Cannes: the Caméra d’Or for her debut film, Suzaku (1997), and the Grand Prix for The Mourning Forest (2007). Her recent films include Still The Water (2014), Radiance (2017), Vision  (2018) and True Mothers (2020).

Viggo Mortensen has won over audiences and critics alike with his innate talent and ability to transcend the boundaries of cinema. With a string of Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, he has moved with ease between films of a variety of genres, from epic fantasy to intimate realism, from poignant dramas to war stories, from comic adventures to gripping thrillers. In 2020, he moved behind the camera to make Falling, his feature directorial debut. True to his desire to offer films with strong themes, he is preparing to unveil his second feature, The Dead Don't Hurt, in 2024.

Tilda Swinton started her work in cinema with Derek Jarman in 1985 with Caravaggio. They made seven more films together, including The Last of England (1987), Edward II (1991), for which she was named Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival, and Wittgenstein (1993). Swinton has established ongoing relationships with numerous renowned directors, appearing in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and The Dead Don’t Die (2019); Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (2009), A Bigger Splash (2015), and Suspiria (2018); Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Parts 1 and 2 (2019, 2021) and The Eternal Daughter (2022); and Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017). 

Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev attended the Novosibirsk State Theatre Insitute and graduated from the acting faculty of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow. In the following years, Zvyagintsev made several stage, film, and television appearances as an actor. In 2003, he made his directorial debut with The Return, which won the Golden Lion and the Lion of the Future at the Venice International Film Festival. His second film, The Banishment (2007), competed for the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes, where actor Konstantin Lavronenko was named Best Actor, a first for a Russian artist. In 2011, Zvyagintsev’s Elena won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Leviathan (2014), which Zvyagintsev co-wrote with Oleg Negin, screened in competition in Cannes, where it won the Best Screenplay Award; the film went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Film – the first Russian feature to win that prize since 1969.

And finally, the two honorees at this year’s Marrakech International Film Festival include Danish star Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan director, screenwriter and actor Faouzi Bensaïdi.

Mikkelsen trained at the Aarhus Theatre Drama School and had his breakthrough in Nicolas Winding Refn’s debut film, Pusher (1996). Their collaboration continued with Bleeder (1999), Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands (2004), and Valhalla Rising (2009). In 2011, Mikkelsen received the European Film Award for his contribution to world cinema. He has had prominent roles in Danish films including Men and Chicken (2015) and the Academy Award-nominated A Royal Affair (2012). More recently, Mikkelsen has starred in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), Arctic (2019), Doctor Strange (2016), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and Casino Royale (2006), as well as playing the title role in the celebrated series Hannibal (2013–2015). He plays the lead in this year’s Danish submission to the Academy Awards, The Promised Land.

And last but not least, the other honoree at this year’s festival Bensaïdi, a theatre and film director, screenwriter, and actor, he directed his first multi-award-winning short film, The Cliff, in 1997. He then co-wrote Far with André Téchiné. In 2000, Bensaïdi directed two short films: Le Mur, which was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Festival de Cannes, and The Rain Line, which won an award at the Venice International Film Festival. His first feature-length film, A Thousand Months (2003), received two awards when it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. His following films were also selected for prestigious festivals: WWW – What a Wonderful World (2006) played at Venice; Death for Sale (2011) won the Art Cinema Award at the Berlin International Film Festival; and Volubilis (2017) was selected for Venice Days and won seven awards at the Tangier National Film Festival. He has also appeared onscreen in films by Bertrand Bonello, Nadir Moknèche, Daoud Aoulad Sayad, and Jacques Audiard.

This year’s Marrakech International Film Festival will take place from November 24th to December 2nd, 2023. For more info, check out their website.